S88 



A VOYAGE TO 



turned backwards; there was something extremely lu- 

 dicrous to me^ in the appearance of this last; his bare, 

 brawny legs dangling in the air, and nothing but a 

 folded sheep skin to sit upon; yet content or rather 

 inanity, was pictured in his countenance. Besides 

 these two, there is a third on horseback, armed in the 

 same manner. If such an exhibition were to pass 

 through one of our streets, with its slow and solemn 

 movement and musical groanings, I doubt not, but it 

 would attract as much attention as half a dozen ele- 

 phants. 



As this is the fruit season, a great number of people 

 were crying peaches up and down the street, but on 

 horseback with large paniers made of the raw hides 

 of oxen, on each side. Milk, in large tin cannisters, 

 was cried about in the same way, and as they were car- 

 ried in a tolerable trot, I expected every moment to 

 hear the cry changed to that of butter. As I moved 

 along towards the great square, a part of which is the 

 principal market place, (immediately in front of the 

 castle, or government house,) there appeared to be a 

 great throng of people. I met some priests and friars, 

 but by no means as many as I expected, and nothing 

 like the number I met at Rio Janeiro. There are, per- 

 haps, fewer monasteries and convents in Buenos Ayres, 

 than in any Spanish town in the world. But as things 

 are very much judged of by comparison, it is highly 

 probable that if I had not touched at the place before 

 mentioned, and had come directly herefrom one of our 

 cities, I should have considered the number of regu- 

 lar and secular clergy, very considerable. It must be 

 constantly kept in view, that in order to judge of these 

 people fairly, we are to compare them with Spanish 



